Hate Him or Love Him, But You Can't Deny Him

You know I have been reading many articles about our current #1Pound4Pound Champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. I have read things about his attitude, his unwillingness to exchange shots, the fact he has not been in any wars like Pacquiao, his claim to be the best ever etc. I have to say it is straight bullsh*t to me. Is Floyd Mayweather Jr. the greatest fighter of all time? I would answer no at this time. Like with any person in sports, their greatness is never realized until it is no longer in our face. You have to become an urban legend if you will, in order for your greatness to be realized. Right now the fighter that Floyd is compared to the most is Sugar Ray Leonard who is without a doubt an all-time great. Now lets break down these two great fighters. Sugar Ray Leonard had the speed, the flash, the power, and could just dazzle any opponent while in the ring. The same can be said for Floyd but possibly not as much power yet better defensive ability. Sugar Ray had a ring record of 36(25)-3(1) and 1 draw for a total of 40 professional fights. Currently Floyd has a ring record of 39(25)-0 for a total of 39 professional fights. Well when we look at fighters records first thing you do is look at the number of wins and losses and total fights. Well Floyd has definitely achieved more wins in less fights with the same amount of knockouts. The next thing people bring up is the level of opposition. Who did he fight? Was the fighter overrated? Was he past his prime? These are the things that make picking who the best is so d*mn subjective. However in order to state your opinion you have to back it up with facts, so lets start with Sugar Ray Leonard. He turned pro on February 5, 1977 and in his 26th fight November 30, 1979 he fought Wilfred Benitez for the WBC Welterweight Title. Benitez was a great fight and was undefeated at 38-0-1 and Leonard TKOd him in the 15th round. Very impressive wouldn't you say. On his 2nd defense of hiw WBC Welterweight Title, Sugar Ray got in with the rough and tough Roberto Duran who beat Leonard by UD in 15 rounds. However on November 25, 1980 just 5 months 5 days later Sugar Ray Leonard had his rematch with Roberto Duran and frustrated him by his quick movements and hard punches and made Duran quit in the 8th round. This was a great win for Leonard and showed he had the heart of a champion by beating Duran. On June 25, 1981 Sugar Ray moved up to light middleweight and TKOd Ayub Kalule for the WBA Light Middleweight title but came back to Welterweight for Super fight and 1981 fight of the year against Thomas Hearns. Once again a great fight where you saw Hearns beating Leonard and ahead on all scorecards when Leonard landed some hard punches and TKOd Hearns in the 14th round. Leonard would fight once in 1982 before being diagnosed with his supposedly career ending eye injury. Now this is where Sugar Ray in many people's eyes just used his star power to get him ahead of the game. No longer was he really working his way up the ranks, he would simply call out fighters and then fight. First he comes back in 1984 against Kevin Howard and surprisingly gets knocked down in the fight but he does come back to TKO Howard in the 9th. He announces his 2nd retirement but in 1987 he challenges Marvin Hagler for the WBC Middleweight Title. This is a fight that if you put 50 people in a room there is a good chance you would have 25 say Leonard won and 25 say Hagler won but alas the official scores came back as a SD for Leonard. Now here is when Leonard's star power really took over, Leonard got to fight Donny Lalonde at 167 for the newly created and vacant WBC SuperMiddleweight Title as well as the WBC Light Heavyweight Title. This was a very odd fight since Lalonde had not fought under Light Heavyweight in quite sometime however this fight took place. Leonard TKOs Lalonde in the 9th round becoming a 5 division champion if that is what you want to call it citing he never even fought at the light heavyweight limit. After this fight Leonard fought a super middleweight fight with Thomas Hearns that was ruled a draw although Sugar who was knocked down twice in the fight tends to say Hearns did beat him in the fight. After that he fought a older slower Roberto Duran then fought 2 more fights that should have never happed in 1991 and 1997 against Terry Norris and Hector Camacho being knocked down and TKOd respectively. Overall still a great career. Now we look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd turned professional on October 11, 1996 and fought Genaro Hernandez on October 3, 1998 for the WBC Super Featherweight Title. At the time many believed Floyd was too young in his career and not ready for a title shot and he was a heavy underdog. Not only was Floyd ready he dominated Hernandez and Hernandez did not answer the bell for the 9th round giving Floyd his first title in just under 2 years as a professional. Floyd defended this title 8 times with some hard opposition including Angel Manfredy whom he TKOd in the 2nd round. On January 20, 2001 Floyd fought the hard punching undefeated Diego Corrales for the WBC Super Featherweight Title. Once again Floyd came in as heavy underdog because of Corrales height, reach and alleged heavy punch advantages. Floyd was not bothered by any of these so called disadvantages he had in front of him, he dominated Corrales and knocked him down 5 times in route to a 10th round TKO when Corrales's corner threw in the towel. In April 2002 Floyd moved up in weight and challenged the tough Jose Luis Castillo for the WBC Lightweight Title. In what turned out to be a tough fight, and what many believe is the closet fight Floyd ever came to lose he pulled out a UD. Since the public had issues with the closeness of the fight Floyd had a rematch with Castillo that left no doubt who was the better fighter. In 2004 after defending his WBC Lightweight belt 3 times Floyd moved up to 140 and fought former titlist Demarcus Corley. Floyd dominated Corley and knocked him down twice in the fight. On June 25, 2005 Floyd went to Atlantic City and challenged Arturo Gatti for the WBC Light Welterweight Title in front of Gatti's fans. Floyd put on one of the most dominating performances of his life stopping Gatti at the end of the 6th round. Never defending that title Floyd moved up to Welterweight later in 2005 and beat Sharmba Mitchell in the 6th round. In April 2006 Floyd challenged always unpredictable Zab Judah for the tainted IBF Welterweight Title. What started out a little shaky for Floyd ended up becoming another dominating UD for Floyd despite the dirty tactics from Judah. Floyd later that year challenged Carlos Baldomir for the WBC Welterweight title and easily took the belt from him by using his sheer quickness and skill. Then May 5, 2007 Floyd landed the fight of his life challenging Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC Light Middleweight Title in what eventually became the richest fight in boxing history. Floyd earned a SD and was officially a 6 time World Champion in 5 different divisions. On December 8, 2007 Floyd dropped back down to Welterweight and TKOd Ricky Hatton from England to put a huge stamp on his status as #1Pound4Pound in the world today. So now I have broke down both Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather Jr. you look at how Floyd actually fought at each division he won a belt in unlike Sugar Ray Leonard. Floyd has only had one rematch and that was against Jose Luis Castillo, but Sugar Ray Leonard fought Roberto Duran 3 times and was 2-1 and he fought Thomas Hearns 2 times and was 1-0-1 controversial draw. Floyd has only been down once in his career and that was when he took a knee because he injured his hand, Sugar Ray Leonard has been down multiple times. Floyd has only had one fight that was somewhat controversial in some eyes where Sugar Ray Leonard had a controversial win over Marvin Hagler and a controversial draw with Thomas Hearns. When you look at opposition, Sugar Ray Leonard stopped fighting consistently after 1982 and then just picked his opponents as he wanted to come in and out of retirement. Floyd continued to fight consistently and move up and fight tough competition and not use star power to claim an extra division he never made weight for. Now the issue right about now comes down to who was the better fighter, well Floyd has never lost and has beaten all of his opponents. Sugar Ray who picked and choosed who he fought lost 3 times being TKOd in 1 and fighting past his prime. Fighting repeat fighters does not do as much for me as a fighter who dominated his opponents so bad rematches were not necessary. I know some will have issues with what I said and how I compared but if you be honest and look at the facts you can't deny that the better fighter between Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is Floyd Mayweather Jr. The only issue is Floyd has not officially retired and urban legends have not sank in so give it around 10 years and you will see Floyd was better than Sugar Ray Leonard.